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“God created you with an awesome purpose for your life. Through prayer, Bible study, and community with other believers you can discover His plan for you. The Rock has opportunities to help you grow in your walk with God. Take advantage of these classes and resources.”

Message

Message Recap

The word of God is radioactive
(radiating energy). When you take it
in by reading it, it has the ablility to penetrate your body, your heart, and your
mind to affect your whole body. Did you
know that prayer can actually change the chemistry of your brain? God’s Word can change your emotions, your
perspective, and even the way you see yourself in the mirror.

In this message series, we are learning that God wants us to love our city.

In this message series, we are learning that God wants us
to love our city. Today we consider how
God’s Word can come into all of our lives and affect us in a positive way.

We are called to take the gospel to San Diego, just as Jonah
was called to take God’s Word to Nineveh. Jonah jumped on a boat going the other way, but God sent a storm which
frightened the men on the boat, who threw Jonah overboard. Then a whale swallowed Jonah and spit him out
on dry ground. God has a way of getting us to do what he
wants us to do by sending consequences that change our perspective.

Nineveh was a large city for its day, with over 120,000
people. It was a violent city with a hatred of Jews. It’s not hard to
understand that Jonah didn’t want to go there. What could one Jew do in such a city?
Equally, you may think, “What little can I do in this huge city of San
Diego with its problems of poverty, drugs, crime, and despair?” As we see in the book of Jonah, you’ll be amazed
what God can do thru one person’s faithfulness to carry His Word. All you have to do is do your part. Speak the Word to whom God tells you. Serve God’s Word, obey God’s Word, and pray God’s
Word over whomever He tells you to pray it.

1. God’s Word moves wherever God sends it.

When Jonah speaks God’s Word, it spreads like wildfire, traveling all the way to the king.

Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and
laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and
published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,
Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man
and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every
one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and
turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Jonah 3:6-9

God’s Word is powerful, and it accomplishes whatever He wants it to accomplish.

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11

If God wants you to speak something or do something, say it! Do it! He has purpose in His asking.

2. God’s Word moves people.

When Jonah finally goes to Nineveh and preaches the Words that God gives him, the people change.

So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on
sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Jonah 3:5

God’s Word alone changed the hearts of these wicked people who the Jews
thought would never repent. Is there
someone in your life about whom you have thoughts like this?...He or she could
never repent, would never believe in Jesus, would never come to church or
listen to the Bible?...The bottom line is that we don’t know people’s hearts or
have the power to change them, but God does.

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart. Hebrews 4:12

3. God’s Word moves God.

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God
relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He
did not do it. Jonah 3:10

Would you like to move God and have Him do something on your behalf? Get into His word. Listen to His Word and obey; you never know what God will do!